Here are some ideas to share with your teenagers for fun, uplifting dating.

ASKING and RESPONDING

Half the fun of a dating can be the asking. Here are some great ideas that have actually been used.

I have heard of policemen, firefighters (complete with tanker engines) and ambulance crews showing up at the house to ‘ask’ for someone. One way is to have a friend or relative who serves as a policeman ask to search your ‘date’s’ car or trunk then find a ‘suspicious’ packet. When asked to open the envelope, the date finds an invitation to the dance. (Be advised this may not work in your area if there are too many restrictive laws on what public servants can and cannot do.)

Build a snowman on the front porch, complete with carrot nose, scarf, etc. Leave a note in the snowman’s hand and ring the bell.

Bake an invitation or an answer inside a pie or cake. Tell your date the answer is inside and watch what happens.

Place your request or answer inside an inflated balloon. Fill your date’s car or room with inflated balloons and tell them to look for the note.

Place an ad in the paper.

One of my favorites was a friend who showed up at his intended date’s house with a single rose and an opened five-pound bag of flour. He said he loved her brownies and wanted her to teach him how to make them. Then, as he handed her the flour and the flower he told her, “Oh, by the way, there’s a note in the flower”. Of course, she thought ‘flour’ and spent half an hour sifting through the flour on her table while he and her parents watched. Finally, in frustration, she said, ‘it’s not in the flour.’

He responded, “I didn’t say it was in the flour, I said it was in the flower.” When she finally realized he meant FLOWER, she took the rose and found a tiny note tucked inside one of the petals.

DATE NIGHT

Include others On the night of the date, go on a double, triple or group date. The more people there are, the more conversation, more laughter and more fun.

Have a purpose. Don't just go on a date, do something productive. Spend a date performing a program for a retirement or nursing home, go to an animal shelter and walk dogs or clean kennels, gather and then deliver donatations to a shelter. Plan a service oriented date. You will learn about your date more quickly in those kinds of situations than you will sitting on a couch watching another video.

Plan a progressive dinner. Go to one house for the appetizers, another for the main dish and a third house for dessert.

Make dinner for someone else. Do the cooking together and then deliver the dinner to a neighbor or someone who is sick. Make enough so that after it's delivered, you can also eat dinner together.

Eat someplace unique. Set up a candlelight dinner at the park, in your backyard, a tree house, even inside a grocery or video store, or the parking lot (if you know the owners). Half the fun is visiting with people who come by. You may even get a newspaper reporter (like myself) to show up. Be aware though, if you want to eat on city property, (such as the courthouse steps) you will need to have it pre-approved.

Have a post-dance party. If your school does not have a post-prom or post-dance party planned, organize one yourself. Invite couples over for games and snacks. No videos allowed. Depending on the games you plan, give them time to change clothes first. Play Frisbee golf, have a Nerf basketball tournament, pull out Twister, play kids games like Red Rover or Duck, Duck, Goose. If it is too cold to play outside, have several game tables set up inside and a timer. When the timer sounds, have them rotate to the next game and keep playing where the previous players left off. Take a fun group picture.

Not all post-prom parties need to be boisterous. Invite a few couples over to bake cookies for people (make the dough in advance or buy pre-made dough). Send everyone home with a plate of warm cookies for their parents as a thank you to them. Or prepare plates of cookies to thank Prom organizers, or anyone else who may need a lift. If it’s not too late, have fun delivering the cookies that night. Set them on the doorstep, ring the bell and run.